Recent Updates

Sonex Aircraft has announced that it is now offering plans and parts for Sonerai I, Sonerai II and Sonerai IIS aircraft. The Sonerai was designed by Sonex founder John Monnett for competition in Formula Vee air racing. The single-seat Sonerai I was introduced at the 1971 Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) fly-in convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, […]

The drone industry is fond of saying that its influence will be felt in every aspect of human endeavor and now it’s managed to replace the chirping of birds and babble of your favorite brook with buzz of four little rotors. The Swellpro Splashdrone 3+ promises to take all the guesswork, much less exercise, out […]

The NTSB says it’s pretty sure a news helicopter hit a drone over downtown Los Angeles last December, causing minor damage to the helicopter, which made a safe precautionary landing. There was a pilot and two passengers onboard the Airbus AS-350, which was operating as an electronic news gathering helicopter for the local ABC affiliate […]

A joint NASA-Boeing independent review team has completed its evaluation of three anomalies that occurred during the December 2019 orbital flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner crew capsule. During the uncrewed test, the Starliner team ran into intermittent space-to-ground communication issues and two software coding errors that resulted in the capsule failing to make it […]

This story originally appeared in KITPLANES. By Tom Wilson Early days are always interesting, and these are certainly early days in electric flight. But as the world awaits a truly energy-dense method of storing and releasing electrons, a few pioneers are paying their dues with crafty experimental airplanes. They’re not only improving the breed, but […]

Announcing a “proactive business strategy,” Glasair Aviation, maker of the Sportsman Experimental, says it is furloughing its production and builder-assist staff while retaining a “core group” of about 10 people for product support and engineering. The company has halted its Two Weeks to Taxi builder-assist program, citing COVID-19 restrictions and the inability to follow them […]

American Legend Aircraft has developed an “extreme” version of its popular experimental/amateur-built Cub it’s calling the MOAC, for “Mother of all Cubs.” Boasting more horsepower from the four-cylinder Continental Titan engine, large flaps and leading-edge slats, and tall gear, the MOAC is described as the “backcountry edition of the Legend Cub. MOAC is the most exciting way […]

An Israeli company says its new Bonanza-sized drone can mix it up safely with regular civilian air traffic thanks to a triple redundant detect-and-avoid system to keep out of the way. The StarLiner from Elbit Systems is compliant with NATO’s Standardization Agreement known as STANAG 4671, meaning it is approved for missions where airliners and […]

Like many RV builders of the early 2000s, I was a Yankee refugee. I had been an active member of the American Yankee Association—the type club for those who owned American (and Grumman American) Yankees, Cheetahs and Tigers, the descendants of Jim Bede’s BD-1—for over 20 years, but we all saw the writing on the […]

Transport Canada is proposing to allow drones weighing as much as a Cessna 152 to be operated beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in what it classifies as “isolated areas” and to liberalize drone operations across the board. The proposals are being opposed by major aviation groups in Canada as a threat to manned aircraft […]